in some places attaining 10 metres in height. In the Finnish islands of Aland it is found truly wild, in a few places only, sometimes in company with an allied species, P. fennica. Conwentz identified it at Bergö, Skarpnåtö, Labnäs, and elsewhere. The finest specimen he saw at Östergeta, being 12 metres high and 2 metres in girth.
In south-eastern Sweden it is more abundant, but does not occur in any of the provinces north of Wermland, about lat. 60° N. In the neighbourhood of Stockholm it grows at Stockby to 12 metres in height. In Södermanland and the island of Gothland it is more common.
In Denmark the tree has been found in many places, and is undoubtedly wild near Aarhus in Jutland, in the forests of Adslev, Kolden, and Jexen. I believe that I also saw it in the forest of Roldskov near Aalborg, though I did not at that time distinguish it from Pyrus Aria. In the island of Bornholm it is known under the name of "Axelbar."
In Germany it is confined to a limited area on the coasts of West Prussia and Pomerania, where Conwentz has found it living in six places only—Koliebken, Hoch Redlau, Oxhöft, Karthaus, Gr. Podel, and Markuhle near Kolberg. He gives maps showing the position of the trees in these places, and says that whilst P. torminalis grows in the interior, where the hornbeam is predominant, P. intermedia grows in the country along the coast, where the beech is the prevailing tree. It occurs most commonly in a shrubby condition, the tallest wild one being only 13 metres high by I metre in girth, but one tree at Gross Podel in Pomerania is 1.90 metre in girth, and at Wernigerode, in the Harz, a cultivated tree has attained 17 by 3.17 metres, which is the largest known to Conwentz. He thinks that the scarcity of the tree in Germany arises from its not being indigenous, as no geological evidence exists of its having been formerly commoner, and suggests that it has been introduced from Sweden by birds of passage, such as the waxwing or thrushes, which are fond of the fruit, and may have voided the seeds after migration from the north.
The Swedish name is Oxel, and this name being found in many place and family names in Sweden, shows that the tree was probably more common formerly than at present.
In Norway, Schübeler[1] says that it is wild only in the most southern parts, as at Porsgrund, Grimstad, and Dalen in Eidsborg, in lat. 59° 42' N. There are large trees at Lunde in Stavanger district growing near the church. In the Botanic Gardens at Christiania I have seen a tree which is about 12 metres high and over 2 in girth. It has been planted and grows well at Stenkjser, at the north end of the Trondhjem Fjord. The Norsk name is Maave.
Dr. Brunchorst, Director of the Bergen Museum, informed the Earl of Ducie that Pyrus intermedia, as well as P. pinnatifida (P. fennica), were found on the south-west coast of Norway, and that a hybrid which he calls Pyrus Meinickii, P. fennica × Aucuparia, has also been recently discovered in the "Mosterö Bommel Fjord," Dr. Brunchorst, who has paid much attention to this genus, says that three species which he cultivates at Bergen vary much, and perhaps pass into one another.
- ↑ Schübeler, Viridarium norvegicum, vol. ii. 477 (1888).
